Also known as: end-user · end users · end-users · ultimate user
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An ultimate consumer for whom a product or service is designed. The designation identifies the person or entity expected to employ the item in its intended manner and distinguishes that party from intermediate distributors or automated processes.
Southern Studios purchased a lighting rig from Brook Media and delivered it to Ridge Stage for a concert. Ridge Stage employees installed the rig with minor adaptations for the venue grid. Trent, who bought only a ticket, stood in the audience when the rig fell and caused his injuries. Trent qualifies as the end user whose harm triggers the manufacturer's strict liability exposure.
An ILEC refused to share network elements with a CLEC that wanted to resell local service to residential customers. The CLEC planned to purchase services at wholesale rates specifically for resale to end users in the local market. The distinction between wholesale and retail traffic turned on whether the ultimate purchasers were end users rather than the CLEC itself.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Buick sold an automobile to a dealer who resold it to the buyer. The buyer lent the car to a friend who was injured when a defective wheel collapsed during ordinary driving. The friend, as the person actually operating the vehicle for its intended purpose, stood in the position of end user whose injury the manufacturer could not escape by claiming lack of privity.
Microsoft required OEMs to install its operating system on every computer they shipped. End users who purchased those machines received the software pre-installed and could not readily obtain competing browsers. The restriction affected the choices available to the end users who ultimately ran the software on their own devices.
ProCD sold a database on CD-ROM accompanied by a license inside the box. Zeidenberg purchased the product and loaded it onto his computer for his own research. As the end user who actually operated the software, Zeidenberg became bound by the license terms that appeared when he first ran the program.
Chicago Pneumatic sold grinders to distributors who resold them to construction companies. Workers at those companies used the tools daily and later developed hand-arm vibration syndrome. The workers, as the end users who operated the tools in their intended manner, could recover under strict liability even though they had not purchased the grinders directly from the manufacturer.
No. Courts interpreting license agreements give the term its generally prevailing meaning, which refers to human operators rather than background processes. When a contract uses users without a special definition, automated scripts are treated as tools rather than end users.
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The rule protects the ultimate consumer or user who encounters the product in the stream of commerce. Liability attaches even without a direct sale because the product is expected to reach that party without substantial change.
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When fees are calculated per user, the term is read according to ordinary meaning unless the contract shows otherwise. Human employees who log in count as end users. Automated processes that merely touch the system do not.
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No. The designation applies only to the party for whom the product is ultimately designed and who employs it for its intended purpose. Distributors and resellers occupy an earlier position in the chain and are not end users.
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…It may be that in those circumstances the negligence of the earlier members of the series is too remote to constitute, as to the ultimate user, an actionable wrong (Beven on Negligence [3d ed.], 50, 51, 54; Wharton on Negligence [2d ed.], § 134; Leeds v. N. Y. Tel. Co. , 178 N. Y. 118; Sweet v. Perkins , 196 N. Y. 482; Hayes v.…